JetBlue to Cut Routes and Pull Out of Cities from Los Angeles to Lima in Wake of Failed Merger

JetBlue Mint business-class cabin on an Airbus A321
On the heels of its failed merger with Spirit Airlines and its abandonment of its Northeast Alliance with American Airlines, JetBlue Airways plans to significantly downsize its route network, it is understood.
The attempt to return to profitability was revealed in an internal memorandum from the carrier’s vice president of network planning, Dave Jehn, to employees sent on Tuesday and viewed by Frequent Business Traveler and The Travelist.
“More than ever, every route has to earn its right to stay in the network,” Jehn wrote. “Some routes that we have been flying no longer make sense.”
The memorandum offers a view to an extremely detailed set of plans to pull out from unprofitable routes and less profitable routes and markets.
In mid-June, the New York-based carrier will end all operations at four major airports, namely Kansas City International Airport in Missouri; El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, Colombia; Mariscal Sucre Quito International Airport in Quito, Ecuador; and Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru.
“These markets are unprofitable and our aircraft time can be better utilized elsewhere,” Jehn said in the memo.
In addition, while it is only a formality, JetBlue will officially end service at New York Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, New York, in the southern Hudson Valley. The move is perfunctory since the two routes to Florida that the airline had operated from Stewart have been suspended since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
JetBlue will also cut a number of short-haul domestic and international flights from Los Angeles International Airport, which Jehn’s memo ascribed to its hope to have been able to “increase our relevance in LAX by combining with Spirit to better compete with the big legacy carriers,” adding that, “[W]ithout Spirit, and without aircraft time and gates available to grow organically, we need to refocus.”
The list of cuts from LAX includes service to Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport, Miami International Airport, and San Francisco International Airport, as well as to Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Costa Rica, among others.
Unaffected are the carrier’s premium transcon routes to Los Angeles from the New York metropolitan area as well as Boston.
JetBlue’s $3.8 billion merger with Spirit was blocked earlier this year by a federal district judge who ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Justice, which had said that the fusion would reduce competition and drive up fares, especially for travelers who currently depend on low-cost Spirit Airlines.
JetBlue’s new CEO, Joanna Geraghty, had called the merger “a bold and courageous plan intended to shake up the industry status quo” and speed JetBlue’s growth.
While then-partner American Airlines last December appealed a ruling by a federal judge who blocked the Northeast Alliance partnership, also saying it was anticompetitive, JetBlue lost interest in pursuing the appeal once it announced plans to acquire Spirit.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)